Then there have been the cleanup acts. The San Diego Chargers got what they needed from Mike McCoy, reviving Philip Rivers and reducing his mistakes. The Kansas City Chiefs have seen all their discipline and turnover issues go away with Andy Reid working with Alex Smith. The Eagles, Chargers and Chiefs all made the playoffs, and the Bears came close.

It was just two seasons ago, when the Lions were a 10-6 NFC wild-card entrant, when it seemed as though the Schwartz-Stafford connection was about to turn a long-time also-ran into a consistent conference contender. Instead, after last year’s 4-12 debacle and this year’s blown chance at the NFC North title while injured-riddled rivals Chicago and Green Bay were both down their starting quarterbacks, the tandem fell flat.

During the Lions' season-closing four-game winning streak, Stafford threw 5 interceptions in contrast to just two TD passes, and committed 23 total turnovers over 16 games. That takes away from his other gaudy stats of 31 total touchdowns and 4,650 passing yards. It’s also telling in his career record against teams that finished seasons with winning records: 2-28.

Schwartz, in his five seasons, carried a lot of the blame for that.

His crowning achievement as a defensive-mined head coach was installing Detroit’s glossy front four, where Ziggy Ansah joined Ndamukong Suh and Nick Fairley on what became the league’s best defensive line.

That’s good and all, but the teams that win consistently, get to the playoffs and battle for Super Bowls in the offense-happy league, do so when they are driven by great quarterback play. Just ask the Ravens, who won it all when they made it all about making Joe Flacco succeed in 2012.

The Lions gave Stafford a new five-year, $76.5 million contract ($41.5 million guaranteed), so he isn’t going anywhere. But Schwartz never got enough out of Stafford.

To save Stafford’s future, the Lions need to pair him with a new, offensive-minded coach, effective next season. There are some great offensive minds waiting to be NFL head coaches, from college (Penn State’s Bill O’Brien) to other successful pro offenses (Seattle’s Darrell Bevell, Denver’s Adam Gase).

It worked for those other four teams with their hires last year, and it’s the direction the Lions need to go.

They had no trouble giving Stafford and Calvin Johnson ($150 million) big money. Now they need to protect their investment with a coach who can deliver a much bigger bang for those bucks.